Yoko Ono Denies Rumors That John Lennon Suffered From Bulimia

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A new book has created some controversy by claiming that former Beatle, [lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]John Lennon[/lastfm], suffered from the eating disorder bulimia. The self-published book titled, Back Stage Pass VIP by Debra Sharon Davis, sheds light on Lennon’s struggle with bulimia, but now the person closest to him is denying the book’s claims.

Lennon’s widow, [lastfm link_type=”artist_info”]Yoko Ono[/lastfm], spoke out against the statements made in the book, insisting that Lennon had a “very healthy diet.”

The book claims that Lennon obsessed over “forbidden foods” and counteracted his guilt of eating bad foods by purging, but Ono simply says these claims are false.

“John did not have an eating disorder,” Ono tells the U.K.’s Mirror, “Sometimes he slipped and ate a bar of chocolate.”

In the book, Davis details on rock stars and celebrities’ more personal side that many fans didn’t see, and writes that Lennon was able to keep his eating disorder out of the public eye because he was surrounded by other musicians facing struggles of alcohol and dependency.

“It was hard for them to see Lennon’s purging behavior as extraordinary,” Davis told RadarOnline. “One must also realize that at that time the public and the media were unaware of bulimia as an addiction and health risk — which made it all the more frightening for John Lennon. He literally had no point of reference on what he was experiencing.”

Davis also includes an interview she had with Lennon’s close friend Henry Nilsson, who witnessed Lennon as having a “ravenous appetite.” Nilsson told Davis that “food was ‘sacred’ to him and it frightened him. He saw it as ‘a great weakness.'”

But Ono insists that Lennon’s relationship with food was always healthy: “He was always on a very healthy diet…His diets included vegetarian diet, macrobiotic diet and, very rarely a juice-only diet. All of the above are internationally approved health diets,” she said.